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StoryLab

inside story

It’s easy to forget about all the little sounds, the pops and rustles and scratches and clicks that surround me in my everyday life. I’m constantly filtering through, focusing past, drowning out all these sounds. And this is especially true with my daily devices. Gone are the days of clacking typewriters and cash registers that go ker-ching. It seems like sound is almost completely peripheral to the function of new technology. I actively keep my iPhone on mute.

Or at least, I did. The Sound of the Artificial World, an episode of 99% Invisible, totally changed my mind. Now my phone is constantly blooping and swooshing and clicking. And every sound means something. Every sound is important to the way I use this device in my pocket. And all because of this one story, and the way it repeats one tiny clip of incredible sounds.

When I first started listening to The Fourth Tower of Inverness, I felt sure that it had been produced within the last few years. It’s a radio drama that seems to campify the New Age movement, and all of the meditation/inspirational tapes that were produced in the 90’s.

But the story is from 1972 - long before self-help tapes became a Thing. It’s as if the writers have a prescient understanding of the hypnotic power of sound, and they use some classic guided meditation techniques to weave that power throughout their playful narrative.

The Storytelling Project is supported by the Stanford Institute for Creativity and the Arts, the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, Stanford Introductory Studies, Stanford Continuing Studies, and the Program in Writing and Rhetoric.